


March of the Forgotten Ones

by phantombride



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Codependent Twins, HELLA SPOILERS, in the year of our lord 2017 I'm gonna describe this as sadstuck, listen, lots of feelings, the only person on this earth who loves lup more than me is Justin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 17:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11583132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantombride/pseuds/phantombride
Summary: One hundred years of memories had hit Taako all at once, too much to handle. The world is ending all around him, and there’s only one thing that can cut through the haze of remembering.Lup.She was brighter in his mind than anything else, burned into the very heart of him. He clung to every second of his time with her, newly remembered in his mind. Over a hundred years of fighting, and cooking, and laughing. Of saving the world, over and over. An entire lifetime spent together. His sister. His Lulu.





	March of the Forgotten Ones

**Author's Note:**

> Taako's thoughts during the events of the most recent episode, Ep. 67: Story and Song - Part One.

One hundred years of memories had hit Taako all at once, too much to handle. The world is ending all around him, and there’s only one thing that can cut through the haze of remembering.

 

Lup.

 

She was brighter in his mind than anything else, burned into the very heart of him. He clung to every second of his time with her, newly remembered in his mind. Over a hundred years of fighting, and cooking, and laughing. Of saving the world, over and over. An entire lifetime spent together. His sister. His Lulu.

 

How could he have forgotten her? How could anyone?

 

The time he had spent in this world was so empty without her. He was Taako from TV, always on the move, always traveling, always alone. He saved this plane out of boredom, the Bureau the only place that would accept his talents. He had never cared for this place or the people in it, never grew close to anyone. And why should he? A world without Lup was meaningless. It was vacant. He never had a home, because his home was with her, and she was gone.

 

When he gained his footing enough to stand, he turned to Lucretia. Nothing else mattered at that moment. He pointed the umbrastaff at her, the only thing staying his hand the memory of Lup. She wouldn’t want him to kill her, no matter what she did. Lup bought Lucretia ten seconds of time to explain herself, but that was all. He would never forgive her for this. He couldn’t.

 

“You fucking took everything from me,” He said, as his hand shook around the staff. He said everything, but he meant Lup. Lup was everything to him, and she always had been. Without her, he had nothing – was nothing. Lucretia stammered over her words. He never heard them. Nothing she could say would make what she had done better. She had taken his sister from him, erased any chance that he would have had to find her and bring her back. How long had Lup been waiting for him? She had even spelled her name out for him – a flag, a flashing alarm for him to notice, a desperate cry for recognition. Lucretia deserved to die just for that, for the way Lup must have felt when she realized he didn’t remember her. 

 

He closed his eyes and lowered his staff - _ her  _ staff. There was nothing he could do to Lucretia that would bring Lup back.

 

“The world is ending, and I DON’T CARE.”

 

They tried to talk of plans, what they could do to save themselves. He had no fight left in him, not anymore. The entire world could burn, and it made no difference to him. The only important thing in it was already gone. Magnus tried to offer him comfort, but there was none. She was gone, the only remnant of her the magic inside the umbrastaff. The Hunger would come for him, come for them all, and kill them, and they wouldn’t be able to escape this time. It didn’t matter. At least if he was dead, he might be able to see her again.

 

“If we leave, Lup comes back.”

 

“What?” Davenport’s words were the first he’d registered in several minutes. They could leave. He could still save her. A glimmer of hope shot through him. He’d raze the world himself to find the Starblaster if he had to.

 

“Lup made us promise, over a hundred years ago-”

 

He thought of her, and the day she had stopped them from destroying a civilization. He would have done it - they all would have. That's why they needed her. The only damned one of them with a heart. 

 

“You are my heart – you know that, right?” Her voice in his ear. The way she had looked that night, the ending of the Best Day Ever. He gripped the umbrastaff tighter in his hand.  _ All right. I'll fight. Because you would. Because you’d save them.  _

 

Every spell he cast was fire. Magnus was right – they were still working together. She had saved him, protected him when she shouldn’t have been able to. Whatever was left of her had called to him, sought him out, brought him to Wave Echo Cave. She had rebuffed Merle, and later, Magnus.  He was the one meant to find her, even when he no longer knew who she was.

 

He imagined her face when he cast the wall of flame, the smile she would give him. The way she looked holding both of their wands in the middle of that planet’s only DMV, surrounded by fire, laughing. His heart wrenched in his chest, distracting him from the rhinoceros that had begun to charge at him. His reaction was too slow, it collided with him and sent him reeling backwards. He dropped the umbrastaff in the process, it skid across the room and landed near Angus. He was halfway on his feet to collect it when Angus spoke.

 

He was holding the umbrella in both of his small hands.

 

“Is this okay, sir?”

 

“Fuck, fine. Go for it.” 

 

The fire ball that sprung from the end of the staff was three times the size of Angus. His eyes were open wide in amazement, looking from the staff in his hand to the flames in wonder. Taako watched as the rhino, who had just moments before tried to gore him, turned black and fell. She had saved him one more time.

 

This was it. Lup’s staff ate the power of defeated magic users. Whatever happened to her, however she had died in that cave - the umbrella would have eaten her lich form. She was still alive. Still conscious, trapped in the staff she created. 

 

He could still save her. 

 

“Sir! I - that wasn't me! I didn't - I didn’t cast that, I'm not powerful enough to cast that!” Angus pulled his gaze from the umbrastaff and turned it to Taako.

 

“I know.” 

 

“No, you don't understand, that wasn’t me that just cast that spell!” He threw the staff back to Taako.

 

Taako caught the umbrella with one hand and broke it over his knee in one smooth motion.  _ I’ve got you, Lulu _ , he thought, as the force released threw him backwards. Before he hits the ground, time freezes. 

 

And he sees her. For the first time since she left him ‘Back soon’, the note that up until this moment was a part of a forgotten lifetime, he sees her. She sacrificed her life to hide her relic, to save the thousands of people who would have died had it entered the world again. It worked - for ten long years no other towns fell victim to the phoenix fire gauntlet. Until he, with Merle and Magnus in tow, had accidentally released it upon the world once more.

 

He saw her in the black curtained place that existed within the umbrella. He saw her try to scream for him, to signal him, to let him know somehow that it was her, and that she was okay. Guilt shot through him. He should have recognized her, heard her cries. Could have, had Lucretia not erased her from his memory. He could’ve freed her that day in Wave Echo Cave, and she wouldn’t have had to live and suffer without him for as long as she did. 

 

He saw her, pacing the black curtained place, angry. Driven to attempting to tear the curtains off the walls in her need to escape, to help him as he nearly died in Wonderland. She’s wringing her hands when Edward drops in. He’s confused, but she isn’t. Taako watches her tear him apart with a vengeance he has never seen from his sister before. 

 

When time starts again, all he can see is a cloud of red smoke. He know she’s coming soon, feels her magic as it destroys the tendril of the hunger. There are fireworks, and they’re beautiful, but he’s growing impatient. Where is she? An explosion causes enemies to drop dead all around the room, but he’s staring at the cloud of smoke. 

 

Finally, after what seems like another decade passes, Lup appears. She’s blazing, more beautiful than he could have remembered her, huge and resplendent and beaming at him. The features of her lich form are blurred, hard to read, but he would be able to recognize her smile anywhere. The Hunger is closing down around them, friends and enemies alike wounded or dead. The apocalypse is here, again, but the moment she turns to him, they’re the only two that matter. It’s almost as if time stops again, just for the space of a few heartbeats, as they lock eyes. She’s staring at him like he’s the only one in the room, and he’s up and walking towards her before he realizes what he’s doing. 

 

Before he can make it there, he hears her voice cut through the sound of the destruction taking place outside. He wonders what her first words to him will be, what her first words after being freed from the confines of the umbrastaff that kept her prisoner for over ten years will be. He smiles at her, and waits.

 

_ “You’re dating the grim reaper?!” _


End file.
